"Tik Tok" (stylized as "TiK ToK") is the debut single by American recording artist Kesha. The song was produced by Benny Blanco and Dr. Luke and co-written by Blanco, Dr. Luke and Kesha. It was released on August 7, 2009 as the lead single from Kesha's debut studio album, Animal. The opening line of the song came from an experience where Kesha woke up surrounded by beautiful women, to which she imagined Diddy being in a similar scenario. The experience triggered the writing of the song which she later brought to her producer, Dr. Luke, who was then contacted by Diddy in hopes of a collaboration; he came to the studio the same day and recorded his lines and the song was completed.

According to Kesha, the song's lyrics are representative of her and based on her life; the song has a carefree message and talks about not letting anything bring you down. The song is an electropop song with dance-pop elements that uses a minimalist video-game beat interspersed with handclaps and synths. The song's verses use a rap-sing vocal style while the chorus is sung; throughout the song the use of Auto-Tune is prominent. Musically, the song has been compared to the works of Lady Gaga, Uffie, and Fergie.

The song generated mixed reviews from music critics upon its release. Critics generally praised the song's lyrics and their celebration of the party lifestyle; the song's production was generally well received although some critics criticized the song for being irritating and derivative. It achieved commercial success by topping the charts in eleven countries. In the United States, the song broke the record for the biggest single-week sum of all time for a female artist selling 610,000 digital downloads in one week. "Tik Tok" was certified 5× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and has sold over six million copies in the United States. The song was the best-selling single worldwide in 2010, selling 12.8 million copies in that year alone,[1] and by 2012 14 million copies were sold,[2] making it in 2012 the second best-selling single in the digital history, after "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen.[2] The song was named 56th on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of All-time.[3]

In 2005, Lukasz Gottwald (Dr. Luke) had just finished producing tracks for Kelly Clarkson's album Breakaway (2004) and was looking to expand further on his writing and producing credits. Luke solicited around to different people in the music business asking for demos from unknown artists. Two of the demos he received were from Katy Perry and Kesha. He was particularly taken with Kesha's demos which consisted of a self-penned country ballad and trip-hop track. The latter of the demos caught Luke off guard when she ran out of lyrics and started to rap, "I'm a white girl/From the 'Ville/Nashville, bitch. Uhh. Uhhhhh." The improvisation made her stand out from other artists that Luke had listened to, which he recalled: "That's when I was like, 'OK, I like this girl's personality. When you're listening to 100 CDs, that kind of bravado and chutzpah stand out." Following this, at the age of eighteen, Kesha signed to Luke's label, Kemosabe Records, and his publishing company, Prescription Songs.[4]

After being signed to Luke's label she also signed to David Sonenberg's DAS management company. While at the label she worked with record producer Greg Wells, which she attributes to developing her sound on her first record, Animal (2010). Although she was signed to Luke and his label, Kesha never took priority as he was busy with other projects at the time. It was not until 2008 when Luke was working with Flo Rida on "Right Round" that he pulled Kesha in to contribute, giving her the female hook. Within a few months the song became a worldwide number one. The event lead to different labels sparking interest in signing her, including RCA Records, to which she eventually signed.[4]

"I tried to rewrite the verses of 'TiK ToK,' I was like, 'This doesn't make sense. "Brushing your teeth with Jack Daniel's"-are people going to get what I'm talking about? Is this too much? Is it clever enough?' And he [Dr. Luke] literally had to fight me off, and then Benny Blanco had to chase me out of the studio when I got a mind to rewrite it."

—Kesha on wanting to rewrite the track due to fear of not making a connection with the audience.[5]

American rapper P. Diddy is featured on two lines on the track. Ke$ha has called him an inspiration for writing the song.

"Tik Tok" was written by Ke$ha, alongside Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco and was co-produced by Luke and Blanco.[6] Ke$ha said the inspiration behind the song came from coming home half-drunk and stumbling after a night out of partying. She would then write down a few words to a song, then the following morning she would wake up with the story waiting to be told. The opening line came from an experience where she woke up surrounded by "beautiful women", leading to her imagining P. Diddy being in a similar scenario.[7] She then proceeded to bring the song to her producer Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco and the song was written. Four hours later, Diddy called Luke and said that they should do a song together. Diddy came to the studio later that day to contribute his lines and the collaboration was completed.[8]

Engineering of the song was done by Emily Wright and Sam Holland at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California.[6] While Ke$ha was in the studio with Dr. Luke and Blanco, she took three takes to get the song correct as she jokingly "white-girl rapped" over the beat.[9] At one point in the song's production, she had wanted to re-write the verses of the song because she did not think that they were "funny or clever", feeling that they "kind of sucked."[10] She elaborated, "I thought it was just another song, I thought it was just like all the other ones I'd written. I didn't even know if it was very good. I wanted to rewrite the verses, I didn't think it was funny or clever. I thought it kind of sucked. But everyone else liked it."[10] Ke$ha ultimately did not end up rewriting any of the song's lyrics. She further described the theme of the song in an interview, emphasizing that it embodied her own lifestyle,

We're [Ke$ha and her friends] all young and broke and it doesn't matter. We can find clothes on the side of the street and go out and look fantastic, and kill it. If we don't have a car that doesn't stop us, because we'll take the bus. If we can't afford drinks, we'll bring a bottle in our purse. It's just about not letting anything bring you down.[11]

"Tik Tok" is an upbeat electropop song[9][12] that incorporates elements of dance-pop and bitpop in its production and beats.[13] It utilizes a minimalist "video-game beat"[14] interspersed with handclaps[12] and synths.[15] Opening the song saying, "Wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy", Kesha uses a spoken word rap style on the verses while the chorus is sung.[9][16] Throughout the song Kesha's vocals are enhanced by Auto-Tune in some places. The song also features two lines by Diddy ("Hey, what up girl?" and "Let's go!")[8][9] Lyrically, the song speaks about "excess pleasures, from drinking ('Ain't got a care in the world but I got plenty of beer') to men ('We kick 'em to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger')."[12] According to Kesha the lyrics are representative of herself, stating, "It's about my life. It's 100 percent me."[10]

Kesha uses a rap vocal delivery which was influenced by the Beastie Boys. She claims that the track's creation would not have happened if it was not for their influence on her music.[9] While the song was being crafted she took a different vocal approach to the song than in her earlier records, explaining that: "I’ve done the country, done the pop-rock, done the super-hard electro, ... I was like, whatever, throw some rap in there, why not?"[9] According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Kobalt Music Publishing, the song is set in common time with a moderate beat rate of 120 beats per minute. The song is written in the key of D minor.[16] It has the sequence of B♭–C–Dm as its chord progression and Kesha's vocals in the song span from the note of D3 to the note of D5.[16] Musically, the song has been compared to Lady Gaga's debut single, "Just Dance", for their similar composition and lyrical context and to Fergie for their similar rap style.[9][17]

In July 2009, the song was offered as a free download on Kesha's MySpace page for over a month before its official sale release. The song was later released to iTunes on August 7, 2009, and on August 25, 2009, in the United States. Barry Weiss of RCA/Jive Label Group relied on a similar marketing scheme to that of Britney Spears' in 1999 when choosing to give the song away for free. The song's marketing relied heavily on radio once she had achieved a strong online interest, but its radio release was delayed until October in order to capitalize on social media's interest in her. After spreading the song quickly topped iTunes charts.[18]

"Tik Tok" has commonly been compared to American singer Lady Gaga's (pictured) debut single, "Just Dance" for their similar subject matter.

"Tik Tok" generated mixed reviews from music critics upon its release. Kelsey Paine of Billboard called the song "a love letter to DJs everywhere, with hand claps that build to a crescendo of pure, infectious dance-pop."[12] Paine, referring to her appearance on "Right Round", wrote that she "offers her own fun and frivolous ode to a wild night out" as she sings about drinking and men. The review was concluded with the consensus the Kesha's debut "reveals a knack for getting the party started."[12] Jim Farber of the New York Daily News called the song "a vintage lick of dance candy too tooth-rottingly sweet to resist" that featured a "stabbing synthesizer hook".[29] Fraser McAlpine of the BBC, giving the single four out of a possible five stars, called it a "dirty little ditty" that had "'hit' written all over it".[17] McAlpine noted its similarities to Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" for their partying subject matter, but concedes that "she does make it sound kinda fun though."[17] Billy Johnson, Jr. of Yahoo! compared "Tik Tok" to the 1980s L'Trimm hit "Cars That Go Boom" and notes that Kesha has "take[n] on L'Trimm's vocal styling for her own hit."[30]

Nick Levine of Digital Spy gave the song four out of five stars, he spoke of the song giving Kesha a "hussy image" but described the lyrics in a positive manner.[31] Levine said the use of auto-tune was "fun" and described Dr. Luke's backing track as "bouncy" and "bubblegummy".[31] The review highlighted the song's chorus with Levine calling it "stonking great" and "completely trashy in the best possible way."[31] David Jeffries of Allmusic called the track "fun", listing it as one of the album's best tracks.[32] David Renshaw of Drowned in Sound felt that the song was effective in what it was trying to do, writing: "Trashy and rambunctious, it’s a brash summer anthem about getting drunk and partying hard. World rocking it might not be, but as a piece of disposable pop it captures a moment and boasts a huge hook which, really, is all you need to rule the radio, TV and ringtone airwaves."[33] Mikael Wood of Entertainment Weekly listed the song as the recommended download off of Animal, writing that "her Valley Girl sneer with electro-glam arrangements that make brushing one's teeth 'with a bottle of Jack' sound like an awesome way to kill the morning-after blues."[34]

Jonah Weiner of Slate Magazine gave the song a negative review saying that "the song sets up ship on the fault line between charmingly daft and deeply irritating." He then compared the song to work by other artists, stating that "the rapped verses are sub-Fergie-grade, proudly stuffed with groaners and to-hell-with-the-expiration-date slang." Weiner echoed the sentiment that the plotline seemed like "a sequel" to "Just Dance", summing it up as "girl wakes up drunk, stays drunk, finds a dance floor and (spoiler alert) gets even drunker."[35] Jon Caramanica of The New York Times described the song as "a zippy and salacious celebration of late nights and mornings-after." He noted that "some have compared Kesha, unfavorably, to Uffie, who is signed to the influential Frenchelectronic music label Ed Banger and whose sass-rap predated Kesha’s by a couple of years." However, he thought that "if anyone should feel fleeced by 'Tik Tok', though, it’s Lady Gaga, who probably hears significant chunks of her hit 'Just Dance' in its melody and subject matter."[9]

Kesha rehearsing "Tik Tok" for the Much Music Video Awards on June 18, 2010.

In the United States, on the week ending October 24, 2009, "Tik Tok" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number seventy-nine.[36] The song steadily climbed the chart and became the first number one of the new decade.[37] On the week ending December 27, 2009, "Tik Tok" broke the record in the United States for the highest single week sales, selling 610,000 digital downloads, the highest ever by a female artist since tracking began in 2003 and second highest overall, behind "Right Round" which sold 636,000 copies on the chart dated February 28, 2009.[38] The record would later be surpassed by Taylor Swift's single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" when it sold 623,000 digital copies in its debut week in the week ending September 1, 2012.[39] On the week ending February 6, 2010, the song topped the Billboard Pop Songs radio airplay chart registering 11,224 spins, becoming, at the time, the most played song in the charts seventeen-year history, breaking the record set of 10,859 spins just a week earlier by Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance".[40][41] The song topped the chart for a total of nine consecutive weeks and at the end of 2010, "Tik Tok" was named the Hot 100 song of the year.[42][43] It was also the seventh most played song on radio in the country and the eighth most downloaded song that year.[44] The song has received 5× Platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of 5,000,000 units.[45] As of May 2014, "Tik Tok" had sold over 6,668,000 downloads in the US.[46]

The song made its first ever chart appearance in Canada, where the song debuted at number sixty-seven on the Canadian Hot 100.[47] It ascended the chart for numerous weeks before attaining the number one position on the week ending November 21, 2009.[48] The song remained atop the chart for two weeks before falling to the number two position, being dethroned by Lady Gaga's, "Bad Romance".[49] "Tik Tok" regained the number one position weeks later on January 2, 2010, and held the top spot for seven weeks, giving the single nine weeks atop the chart in total.[50][51][52] In 2009 the song was the year's seventy-sixth best charting song and it was 2010's second best charting song on the Canadian Hot 100 Year End Charts.[53][54] The single has been certified 7× Platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) for sales of 560,000 units.[55]

"Tik Tok" made its chart debut on the official New Zealand Singles Chart at number seven on the issue dated October 5, 2009.[56] The following week it moved up to number one where it held the top spot for a total of five consecutive weeks.[56] The song has since been certified 2× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) for sales of 30,000 units.[57] In Australia the song debuted on the ARIA Charts at number twenty-eight, and reached number one on its third week on the chart.[58] The song was listed atop the chart for a total of eight weeks and in 2009 it was listed at position nine on the Australian Singles Year End Chart.;[58][59] the following year the song was listed at position twelve on the 2010 year end chart.[60] It has since been certified 5× Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for sales of 350,000 units.[61]

In Europe, the song debuted at number thirty-eight in Sweden on the issue dated October 23, 2009, and managed to peak at number three.[62] The song debuted at thirty-nine in Denmark and peaked at number three.[63] In Norway, the song debuted at number eleven and peaked at number three.[64] In the United Kingdom, "Tik Tok" debuted on the official UK Singles Chart at number six on November 8, 2009, and over a period of just under three months climbed to a peak of number four on January 3, 2010.[65]

The song sold 12.8 million digital copies worldwide in 2010, making it the best selling single of the year, trumping the previous year's song by more than three million downloads.[67] As of 2012, it has sold around 14 million copies worldwide.[2]

The music video for "Tik Tok" was directed by Syndrome.[68] It was shot in Kesha's old neighborhood and the car featured in the video belongs to her.[69] Kesha explained the experience saying, "the video I'm excited about because I actually got to shoot it in my old neighborhood and the guy driving my gold car is a friend of mine".[69] The video's party scene was shot in her friend's house, which they refer to as the "drunk tank". The singer said "the last party scene is in this house called the drunk tank, which is one of my friend's houses that we all go party at. So I like it cause its super-honest and genuine."[69] The video begins with Kesha waking in a bathtub in a home as she stumbles out and begins to look for a toothbrush in the restroom. She makes her way down a staircase looking at the pictures lining the wall. Kesha makes her way to the kitchen and walks in on a family who are having breakfast, startling them. She shrugs and then leaves the home as the family gets up and follows her. When she arrives at the sidewalk, she picks up a gold bicycle lying against a fallen fence and rides off. Kesha meets a group of children and trades the bicycle for their boombox. The video cuts to another scene where she rejects a guy and is picked up by a man portrayed by Simon Rex[70] who drives her in a gold 1978 Trans Am. They are pulled over by the police, who handcuff Kesha. The scene then pans to her singing while standing in the T-top as she dangles the handcuffs hanging from her left arm. The next scene shows Kesha in an empty room filled with glitter. She then attends a party with Rex for the final scene. The video comes to an end with Kesha lying in a different bathtub from the one she woke up in.[68] The official music video has received over 240 million views on YouTube as of June 24, 2015.

Another parody of "Tik Tok" which is called "Go Cops!" has reached over 11 million views on YouTube and became viral rapidly. This parody was made by a Comedy Music Artist and Comedian from Detroit called Rucka Rucka Ali.

The cast of FOX musical series Glee performed this song on the episode "Blame It on the Alcohol", with Heather Morris' character, Brittany Pierce, taking the lead.[84] The episode revolved around teen drinking and its dangers. The members of Glee Club are asked to perform at the school's alcohol awareness assembly, in which "Tik Tok" is one of the songs performed.[85][86] Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club wrote that the song's inclusion in the episode was superfluous, stating that it was just an excuse to get a Kesha song on Glee. VanDerWerff however, wrote that he "REALLY liked Heather Morris'" rendition of the song.[85] Sandra Gonzalez of Entertainment Weekly praised Brittany's choreography and overall performance in "Tik Tok", writing, "The huge star of this number was clearly Brittany, who more and more every week proves that she needs to be moved to the forefront of this show's big performances and storylines."[87] Gonzalez gave the cover version of "Tik Tok" a B, calling it "pure, fun entertainment up until we got to the part straight out of the mind of Gordie LaChance. So even though the purple vomit was a bit too much for this weak viewer, the performance made me add a Ke$ha song to my iTunes, which I never thought would happen."[87] Erica Futterman of Rolling Stone gave the cover version of "Tik Tok" a mostly positive review, writing, "Love Brittany as we do, we wish Rachel or Mercedes stepped up to the mic. The performance is less risqué than their Pep Rally "Push It" but winds up causing more controversy when Brittany pukes on Rachel and Santana also vomits up grey slush. It's a fitting end to the song, and the episode."[88]